Yemen re-elects leader
President Ali Abullah Saleh with US vice president Dick Cheney
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Saturday, 23, Sep 2006 07:30
Opposition parties in the Gulf state of Yemen are challenging the result of a presidential election held on yesterday, which they appear to have lost comprehensively.
Facing the first major challenge to his power since first coming to office 21 years ago, president Ali Abdullah Saleh comprehensively defeated former oil minister Faisal bin Shamlan in elections held on Wednesday.
The incumbent won 77 per cent while Mr bin Shamlan took 21.8 per cent, state-run TV reported the country's electoral commission as saying.
This result has not been accepted by Mr bin Shamlan's party, which has consistently criticised the government's autocratic tendencies throughout the election campaign and aftermath.
"What has been announced is not true and is illegal," Ali al-Sarari, an opposition spokesman, told the Associated Press news agency.
"There has been tampering in the results of the elections and the regime in Yemen is still autocratic," he said, claiming that although president Saleh would still have won an overall majority he would have done so with only around 60 per cent of the popular vote.
Field Marshall Saleh has been president of Yemen since the country's formation in 1990 and was president of the Yemen Arab Republic from 1978 to 1990.
The country's slow transition to a constitutional democracy has not removed the popular leader from power, however. His re-election on Wednesday means he will hold office for a further six years.
Yemen's electoral commission said at least five million out the country's electorate of 9.2 million voted in the poll.